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January 30, 2014

Adam's Global Top MBA Rankings 2014

As I have been doing since 2008, I wanted to provide my Global Top 100 MBA Rankings for 2014. The rankings below should hopefully be of value for both those engaged in initial school application selection and for admitted applicants who have been accepted to multiple programs and need to determine where to go. Programs are ranked in many ways, so certainly look at other rankings lists. There is no one objective measure of an MBA programs’ value and no ranking that can account for an individual student’s positive or negative return on their investment of time and money for a graduate business education.

One advantage of a salary-based list of programs worldwide is that it helps to see the rising global market value of MBA programs. It also means that those of us who help applicants considering worldwide application, start to pay more attention to such national leaders and not just to dominant US and European programs.

For those with a US MBA bias, this ranking should be humbling because so many of what are usually ranked quite highly in the US, don't, at least at the weighted salary level, look as attractive as rankings might suggest.

From a school selection perspective, I think looking at the stark reality of the expected financial outcome is critical. Looking at this solely helps to put the outcome into focus. "The 100" is only one possible way of doing this.

"Methodology": All FT “Global MBA Rankings 2014” Data was ranked in order of " Weighted Salary ($)." No other methods were employed. I have included the FT 2014 rankings as well.

Justification #1: Whatever you get paid when you graduate is the base market value of your degree.

Justification #2: One may very well value an MBA beyond mere salary calculations, but salary will certainly be a factor for almost everyone.

Justification #3: Since each school reports its own data, assuming that data is good, the ranking is based on objective criteria that all programs have in common. Note: This a big assumption because it is based on the belief that schools are not manipulating their data).

Disclaimer #1: I could use some other accumulation of salaries for this same purpose, but FT’s list is global, so I decided to use it. If your school is not included on this list of the top 100, please don't be offended. If FT ranked more programs, so would I.

Disclaimer #2: Actual market value will very much depend on your situation. The numbers below are only averages.

Disclaimer #3: Salary is but one measure of ROI. This survey does not account for relative increase in salary, opportunity costs, or other less tangible, but important factors.

Disclaimer #4: These rankings in no way measure the value of the educational experience at any of these programs, merely the reported average weighted post-MBA salary outcome.

I would like to thank “my team” at FT for doing all of the hard work. They have this nifty way of generating excel documents that really reduced my work by hours.

I am a graduate admissions consultant who works with clients worldwide. If you would like to arrange an initial consultation, please complete my intake form. Please don't email me any essays, other admissions consultant's intake forms, your life story, or any long email asking for a written profile assessment. The only profiles I assess are those with people who I offer initial consultations to. Please note that initial consultations are not offered when I have reached full capacity or when I determine that I am not a good fit with an applicant.